CITY GROUND — If Arsenal are going to do this again, it will be through fine margins. They were unwatchable for long periods of this gritty, grim win, scoring with their first shot on target after 80 minutes of dirge. It was heavily deflected past Matz Sels, as if to reinforce that such a miserable game could contain nothing pure.
Winning is everything, Mikel Arteta stressed after the match with the serious face of a man who knows that this isn’t good enough.
Arsenal have proven themselves capable of managing all scenarios. It’s just that everything looks such hard work. Is the mark of champions to play poorly for 90 per cent of a match?
The comparative dearth of Arsenal set-piece goals is now the pattern. Before Sunday, the team that looked to have perfected the art of corner-kick movement had scored 21 goals this season; 20 of them were from open play. The cheat code, the VIP pass to a one-goal lead, has evaporated quickly.
But doesn’t that create reason to play with greater urgency, not less? If you know that you are less likely to score via previously established means, it would suggest that hurrying to find an alternative one might be a good idea.
Arteta does not seem to have got that memo, or at least does not care to read it. In seven Premier League matches in 2026-27, Arsenal have scored three first-half goals. Two of those came on the opening night of the season at home to Coventry City, when Arsenal were electric. They have been distinctly analogue since.
Even by these new standards, Arsenal were laboured for extended periods at the City Ground. The absence of Morgan Gibbs-White in red should have facilitated Arsenal to push on further, faster and in larger numbers without fear of counter-attack reprisals. They didn’t do that either.
If there is any cause for concern in a title-celebrating fanbase, it is the question of what to do about the left-wing problem. The simple maths of selling two players and signing one – unproven, if with bags of potential – were flawed. Christos Tzolis’s injury is unfortunate, but in a sense is karmic punishment for leaving yourself short.
Of course, Arsenal possess an attacking midfielder who is supposed to be comfortable as a No 10, as the left of a midfield three or drifting in from the left wing. After all, that is surely why Eberechi Eze was picked by Thomas Tuchel during the recent international break.
At Nottingham Forest, Eze was anonymous from the start and taken off at half-time, presumably for his complete absence of urgency or incision.
Three or four times he was given the opportunity to take on Jair Cunha or Daniel Munoz. Each time he threatened to, turned back and played the ball back into midfield.
Perhaps that is merely the instruction, but if so, it sells both Eze and Arsenal short. In the same way that Jack Grealish was plucked out of a system that enabled him as a glorious maverick and had those rough edges smoothed at Manchester City, Eze looks forlorn as a worker bee in a machine. The irony is that Arsenal lacked creative spark and unpredictability.
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Noni Madueke was Eze’s replacement and the matchwinner. He was signed as backup, competition and relief for Bukayo Saka, forced into an unfamiliar role and ultimately making it work. He deserves credit for that, even if few teammates can share his credit.
For now it just about doesn’t matter. Arsenal are finding a way. But they are rarely secure and only ever in control when it comes without penetration. Winning the title is supposed to be liberating. So why does everything feel so tight again?